I asked myself when I was young,
why does a frog have a sticky tongue?
I eyed pancake lily pad beyonds
where frogs hopped maple syrup ponds.
The answer then was in my reach.
I ate my breakfast. Now, I teach.
Revealing strength
Ready to face storms
Without fear.
Unwavering
Refuses to bend
Before injustice
Enduring odds
Chooses to rise
After a fall.
Yielding not
Voices the truth
Until the very end.
There are no crashing Hebridean waves here,
just flat acres of cornfields and country roads,
only farmed earth and red barns.
This mist drowned morning
the sky has offered its own sea,
it carries a saline memory
of spray and spume.
Here in my suburban garden
North, South, East and West
are one.
Blooms are now sea anemones
the hedgerow a reef,
a familiar tree line is a gray cliff face.
For a long moment
I gaze from a Scottish shore,
but then a kitchen radio is turned on,
a truck blasts its air-horn, a child shouts.
A blotting gust of wind scatters
all before it. Ohio quickly repaints itself.
Somewhere in a cornfield
a rabbit sniffs a passing sky-wave,
it may have shrugged,
hard to tell, but I assume it did.
As I lay with you in front of me,
My mind begins to wander.
As I strip down my clothes,
I struggle to strip myself.
The ugly scar that tears my side,
The gaping wound under my bellybutton,
The stomach that swells and bloats
Can I really show you who I am?
The stereotypes were never true.
I’m not a beast who needs to be tamed.
I’m only a man who wants to love and be loved.
Is this enough to make you want to stay?
I’ll strip myself down to reveal my insecurities,
Relinquish the thought of never being enough,
Wrestle with the voices echoing to end it all
Will you still want me if I start to fall?
Laying here with you isn’t just pleasure;
It’s the first place I’ve felt safe.
I’ll give you compassion, and my trust
Is this too much for you to hold?
The door is right there, and I won’t stop you.
But if we do this, I’m giving you all of me.
Please, don’t use that against me.
I will wrap my arms around you,
But will you hold me,
And see me the same?
How silly was to defy appearance and belief
to make others happy and imitate their own;
swimming in dangerous waters requires strength
when tides rise and all thoughts turn to death:
there's rarely a survivor, who hangs on a reef
as violent waves batter and faces show a frown.
If I procrastinate ideas is because I lack confidence,
filling each void with aspirations which are too brittle
to withstand the fury of a malicious rebuke
hurled by a hand I did not hold for insolence.
to reveal my inner self the humblest pride.,
even naive jokes got me upset enough to puke.
It's not wise to confide in dorks, they'll laugh it off,
their intention is mock and humiliate a troubled soul;
keep secrets to yourself, put effort toward your goal
of being admired, not mortified for actions that scoff.
Ah, give them a big glass of scotch and they'll forget scorn!
Ah, mock their defiant character, not as noble as a unicorn!
Your recent reveal was a sad steal
of all I knew.
My memory now bleeds severely
making days blue.
My world shattered and scattered
across the floor.
Something dying is out loud crying
aching and sore.
Your truth so grilling it is piercing
the past I saw.
Now that I am bruised by your news
I am plain raw.
Feeling a fragile head from words said
I’m torn apart.
No light to lend so darkness will bend
and ease my heart.
I will long mourn this unwanted thorn
that makes me cry.
I must ride the storm then wake some morn
with my eyes dry.
I need healing so I am willing
to see tears gone.
Accepting plight to put thoughts aright
I must play strong.
I accept what I cannot reject
for I love you.
Not knowing truth would alter my youth
your story flew.
Nothing to gain by showing my pain
so I hushed true.
Explanation of revelation
will not ease me.
You had a need to stop your own bleed
to set hurt free.
Never will you meet the strain of pain
for me, not thee.
enjoying unbound freedom, innate to Self
presence invokes the power of pure intent
whence the one becomes two and then one again
in a playful game of descent and ascent
that God’s love and light breath by breath we ingrain
You see it coming through an opaque mirror,
first signs and last winks, a monstrous revealing
the marks of a construction worker with no blueprint
one who realizes that the edifice is crumbling
from within, the pearl rubbed raw shedding its
chalky dust. At last, you see a built-in purpose,
the apparent form
together with its transpiring apparition,
the grand design arriving in one revelation.
There are no monsters or angels, the brute was always
a shallow sketch of a dilapidation that had to be
drawn before your sight until you saw
hidden beneath the scaffolding of perception,
the beautiful unformed Creator
looking clearly through
your own eyes.
There's no one cause I'm done,
With the sore and the pain.
But there's awe with my faith,
That is growing again.
The peace I'm embracing,
It has filled my whole heart.
And my soul sings the rhythms,
Of a day with no start.
This Christmas I'm healing,
And I'm new like a moon.
I'm lighted, revealing,
Full of glow in a room.
It was too heavy, I could not lift it
onto the page.
The poem was bleeding from an ancient wound,
I did what I could to mend and heal.
Some visions are male, some female,
some disclose themselves,
to be utterly alien to any sexual persuasion.
The poem was multi-dimensional,
I had to peel realty away from it,
as if it were swathed in Saran wrap.
Gradually it became lighter,
much lighter,
until it was more diaphanous
than a dragonfly's wing.
I could pin it upon paper now,
but many would still not see it,
nor ever name it.
A wash of mist
incompletes the visible,
and yet
this morning
no eyes need definite
a world
being painted once more.
You can't learn who you are or what you feel if you never spend time alone. It gives you time to get perspective; to think and feel without the influence of other people, energy or noise.
Revealing your true soul
By Michelle Morris
02/07/2023
It can be scary
To spend time alone
Going deep within
Revealing your true soul
But it's the only way
To get in tune with yourself
Without the influence of others
The energies in the Universe
Take these precious moments
Have faith over all your fears
Gain a better perspective
That will serve you through the years
© Michelle Morris, 2023
I uncovered the venom
It's disgust brought anguish by the grave of my soul
An infinite floating sinister shadow my soul it binds
Back into my memories muse
This shadow my of darkness I feel it crawl
Ominous clouds forming
As it descends
Of savored wonder this storm of sorrow
I drift away
A quiet fright of unease black is my soul
Black are my wings
Black is the days
Trapped is my mind trapped is soul
I am uncovered I am cold.
I got a heart and it's beating in my chest
A gift of life from my father God breath
Eternity mine
Elohim holder of time
~
Revealing
My Lord keeps me form harm
He watches over my life
Always, Embraces me twit, His arms
eternity mines
I am the Lord's heart
and He gives me His life, for me
~
Revealing
He alone hung on Calvary Tree;
God's breath my life;
Eternity intended into me
Kingdoms sight
God breath in my life heavenly
My Father touches my heart
He breath in me imparted life
~
REVEALING
11/14/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2022©
I feel sometimes the presence of God on my front porch...
Watching me come and go and keep the lighting on my torch...
From going out due to the darkness that has come...
With all the pain I've suffered and the bad things that were done...
To a person who deserves more than to be ignored or displaced...
Even though the past haunts me it has and will be faced...
By the same person that some see as wrong...
If only my wishes for a loving supportive family hadn't taken so long...
I wouldn't carry this anger and emptiness where ever I go....
But I'm glad I have the love of God to bring me through this time I know...
He's with me in every step big or little...
At least He cares enough to fix me when I'm brittle.
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